DANU Ceramics: Discover the Brand
"Danu was the ancient Celtic Goddess of earth and creativity and the Hindu Goddess of water – three elements essential to the creation of pottery. The two Goddesses are believed to have the same origin, dating back to the time when the Vedic people of South Asia traded and interacted with the Celts of Western Europe. Many waterways in Europe and Asia were named in honor of Danu, such as the Danube River in Germany and the Danu River in Nepal. The ancient peoples of Western Europe and South Asia considered themselves to be children of Danu. In Ireland, they were called the Tuatha Dé Danann (the people/tribe of the goddess Danu)."
This is Ruth, the founder and creator of DANU Ceramics.
Ruth graduated from the National College of Art and Design Dublin in 2011 and founded DANU in 2015. She is originally from Dublin, Ireland where she has lived all her life. Each piece is designed and created by her using a variety of techniques such as hand-casting, glass fusing and sheet work. Ruth loves to experiment with clays, glazes and different materials such as 22k gold, mother of pearl and glass. Every piece she creates is unique and never the same as another .
Recently, she has begun collecting and selling extraordinary works by other artisans from around the world, such as gold and lapis lazuli jewelry from Afghanistan, agate from Brazil, glass beads from Ghana and Ethiopia, and incredible ornaments created by refugees (a United Nations initiative).
Her inspiration comes from travel, nature and her home country of Ireland. Ruth and her partner spend a lot of time curating each photo. Whenever they travel, they collect beautiful and unusual objects from local artisans to use in their photographs: copper spoons from Lhasa, Tibet, ceramics from Takayama, Japan, brassware and textiles from Varanasi, India, and sculptures from Flores, Indonesia. Ruth hopes that when people browse her shop they will feel like they are on a journey . Each product has its own story to discover.
Her mission is to create affordable, quality , small batch pieces that will last . Ruth believes that ethical craftsmanship can be easily attainable. Her pieces maintain their exclusivity not because of high prices, but because they are not mass-produced. Her jewelry boxes are made from recycled kraft paper . She uses corrugated cardboard instead of plastic packaging and recycled shipping boxes salvaged from local shops.
Ruth loves to personally deliver orders to her stockists in Dublin city centre, stopping for a chat and meeting other designers and small business owners. Companies with a strong environmental conscience, who adopt eco-friendly practices, have fewer employees, less waste and lower turnover than large companies . Small businesses are the future and are inherently more eco-friendly, without the greenwashing of huge corporations.
Ruth believes that objects created from clay should retain a natural quality, one that shows an appreciation for the integrity of the objects and natural processes, with obvious traces of having been made by hand . Wabi-sabi (侘寂) is an ancient philosophy rooted in Zen Buddhism. It is a Japanese aesthetic that values the imperfect, the handmade, and simplicity . It evokes a rustic simplicity, freshness, or tranquility, and can be applied to both natural and man-made objects, or to an understated elegance. It can also refer to the peculiarities and anomalies that arise during the construction process, adding uniqueness and elegance to the object. As a former perfectionist, this quote resonates deeply with her: "To accept the world as imperfect, incomplete, and transitory, and then to delve deeper into it in celebration of that, is something akin to freedom." - Richard Powell, author of "Wabi Sabi Simple: Create beauty. Value imperfection. Live deeply" (2004).